Milwaukee County should consider privatizing the zoo. That was what county executive Scott Walker proposed. He said it could even happen within two years.

But some feared the idea might cost taxpayers money.

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The county executive said the idea was to maintain a world-class zoo without wasting money on duplicated staff and services. However, critics of the idea said it could end up costing the people who come through the gates every day.

It's one of the area's top attractions, but Walker said maybe the Milwaukee County Zoo shouldn't be run by Milwaukee County.

"You'd have more money actually freed up to go into running the zoo," Walker said.

In his budget proposal, Walker will propose a study to examine turning control of the zoo over to a separate organization.

"It would be through a non-profit that would be essentially created solely for the purpose of running the zoo. It would have the support of both the county and the zoological society," Walker said.

Currently, both the county and the zoological society have some control over the zoo, with separate staff running and marketing it. Walker's plan would merge those two into one non-profit group, which would begin to run the zoo in 2011. But not everyone was buying into the idea.

De Bruin said she had studied similar proposals for years, and feared that taking control of zoo away from the county would be costly to taxpayers and zoo visitors.

"I'd be a little skeptical that just privatizing it would somehow end up costing taxpayers less. And in the end, I'm more concerned they won't be able to afford to go to the zoo because the rates will go up," De Bruin said.

But some frequent zoo visitors said they weren't sure whether or not privatization was a good idea for them, or the zoo.

"I do like it being a county zoo. I think it's important, a good thing for Milwaukee county," Wauwatosa resident Maggie Dicastri said.

"But then again it could make more money, have more profit. I'm not quite sure," Greendale resident Heidi Strohmeyer said.

Walker, on the other hand, was convinced the plan would save money without hurting the zoo.

"All the things that people like about the current zoo would be maintained, just without the overhead and the additional costs that are a part of that," Walker said.

Walker also said the plan differed from his high-profile plan to privatize the airport. In regard to the zoo privatization, it wouldn't involve a private company, but rather a non-profit set up just for that purpose.

The chairman of the zoological society said the group would be happy to go along with the study, and was very open to examining alternative methods for funding and operating the zoo.